Ref:

BM Cott. Vesp. B 15, f. 61, from an inscription on his tomb

m. BEATRICE
d.c.1112

Aubrey was a tenant-in-chief of William the Conqueror in 1086 and a vassal to Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances and to Count Alan, Lord of Richmond. The common use of the name Albericus by the Veres in medieval England makes it impossible to say for certain if the Aubrey de Vere named in Domesday Book in 1086 holding estates in six counties is the same Aubrey de Vere who around 1111 founded Colne Priory, Essex, but it is probable.

Aubrey's origins are obscure and various regions have been proposed for his birthplace. Their lineage is probably Norman, possibly originally from the eponymous town of Ver/Vire in western Normandy, and the Veres were erroneously said to descend from Charlemagne through the Counts of Flanders or Gu�nes by later antiquarians. Their connection with Gu�nes, in Flanders, was temporary, his grandson Aubrey de Vere III was briefly married to Beatrice, heiress to Gu�nes.

The only certainty is his landholding recorded in Domesday Book, where he and his unnamed wife were accused of some unauthorized land seizures. The principle estates held by Aubrey de Vere in 1086 were Beauchamp Walter, Great Bentley, Great Canfield, Castle Hedingham, Earls Colne, White Colne, Dovercourt, and Stevington, Essex; Aldham, Belstead, Lavenham, and Waldingfield, Suffolk; and Castle Camps, Hildersham, Silverley, and Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire. He possessed houses and acreage in Colchester. As tenant of the bishop of Coutances, he held Kensington, Middlesex; and Scaldwell and Wadenhoe in Northamptonshire. Of the barony of Count Alan his manors were Beauchamp Roding, Canfield, and West Wickham, Essex. His wife held at Aldham, Essex, in her own right of Odo bishop of Bayeux. She was accused by Domesday jurors of expansion into Little Maplestead, Essex. Aubrey's seizures or questionable right of possession to estates included Manuden, Essex; Great Hemingford, Huntingdonshire; and Swaffham, Cambridgeshire.(1) As his wife's name is recorded as Beatrice in 1104, she may have been his wife in 1086 and the mother of his five known sons.(2) Aubrey's estates held of the king were valued at approximately �300, putting him in roughly the middle ranks of the post-conquest barons in terms of landed wealth.(3)

More difficult to sort out are contemporary references to "Aubrey the chamberlain" and "Aubrey of Berkshire." An Aubrey was chamberlain to Queen Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, but it is unlikely that this was Aubrey de Vere. An "Aubrey of Berkshire" was a sheriff in the early reign of Henry I; it cannot be ruled out that this was Aubrey de Vere. Aubrey de Vere I may also have served that king as a royal chamberlain, as his son and namesake Aubrey de Vere II did.

Before 1104, Aubrey's eldest son Geoffrey fell ill and was tended at Abingdon Abbey by the royal physician, Abbot Faritius. The youth recovered but suffered a relapse and was buried at the abbey. His parents founded a cell of Abingdon on land they donated (Earl's Colne Priory, Essex). Within a few years, Aubrey and his son William joined that community. Aubrey died soon after taking the Benedictine habit, William passing away not long after his father. Both were buried at the priory, establishing it as the Vere family mausoleum.(4) His heir was Aubrey de Vere II.

Issue-

Ref:

(1) Domesday Book
(2) Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum- Vol. II, p. 100, No. 981
(3) Cambridge History of the Middle Ages- Corbett
(4) History of the Church of Abingdon- pp.90-1

The Complete Peerage- Cockayne, Vol. X, p. 194

b.c.1080
m. ADELIZA/ALICE FitzRICHARD, d. of Gilbert FitzRichard of Clare
killed May 1141
bur. Colne Priory, Essex

Aubrey took part in the First Crusade in 1098 and the story goes that while engaged in a fierce battle against the Sultan of Persia for Antioch there was great confusion as darkness began to fall. At the moment when the Saracens were about to be saved by the fall of night a brilliant five point star appeared on the standard carried by Aubrey illuminating the battlefield and a victory was won over the Sultan's troops.

Hedingham Castle- c.1140

Aubrey served as sheriff of many shires and as a Justiciar under kings Henry I and Stephen.(1) In 1130 he was indebted to the crown for a large sum after a prisoner he was responsible for escaped. King Henry I had declared the estates and office of the first master chamberlain, Robert Malet, to be forfeit, and in 1133 awarded the office of master chamberlain of England to Aubrey. The chronicler William of Malmesbury reports that Aubrey represented King Stephen in 1139, when the king had been summoned to a church council to answer for the seizure of castles held by Roger, Bishop of Salisbury. He was killed by a London mob in May 1141 while his castle at Hedingham was still being built. He was buried in the family mausoleum at Colne Priory, Essex.

His eldest son Aubrey "the Grim"de Vere III, was later created Earl of Oxford, and their descendants were to hold that title and the office that came to be known as the Lord Great Chamberlain until the extinction of the male line in 1703.(2)

Issue-

Ref:

(1) Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum- Davis et al., Oxford University Press, 1913-68: v.2
(2) The Complete Peerage- George Cokayne, Ed., St. Catherine Press, 1910- Vol. 10